Category Archives: Genealogy

Learn. Focus. Organize. Oh look, bright shiny object. This is my messy haphazard staging area, a behind the scenes collection of links and information used to write the stories or outlines of my ancestors. I use this area to think out loud about which documents are truly connected to my ancestor. I do my best to not just shuffle the deck and create the perfect ancestor. ;-)

Up until last year I was entirely self-taught. Though I never checked for sources within it, I thought the book I treasured and drew up my first family tree from was just as good as collecting birth and death records. I didn’t even see all the value in census records. I’ve already owned up to it, but as I said in my first blog post, I also downloaded other trees. Shameful, I know.

I had a grand idea of a “Genealogy Do-Over” before seeing Thomas MacEntee’s post. It began last year, that magical year, I discovered a genealogy conference hosted in my own little town. I learned so much about primary sources, citing sources, and just how much I was discarding when I only glance at census records. I kicked myself repeatedly over all of it.

The blog post of a paternal great-grandfather is my first attempt at using what I learned. That post alone had more sources cited than the rest of my entire database. You can’t see it, but I really am hanging my head in shame as I type this.

I’m not going to toss out my database, though I am considering a minty-fresh new database. I may use the old one as a guide of sorts. If I get some of the things I added to my Christmas list I may even do it with some new software. The move I’m going to make probably isn’t considered a “do-over” more like a deep cleaning. A very thorough scrubbing. But I’ll be following Genealogy Do-over. I’m very interested in learning new techniques. I tend to bounce from limb to limb of the tree, so setting goals and tracking research are of particular interest to me now.

I knew nothing of my great-grandfather, Frederick Cobb Chase. Growing up all I had ever heard is that he was from California. In 2003 I asked my grandfather about his parents, but by that time he was in a nursing home with Alzheimer’s. I was given the full names of my great-grandparents and told that my great-grandfather was born in Lowell Massachusetts. He died when his son, my grandfather was 12. It took me ten years to gather enough information about my great-grandfather to build a life sketch and find the names of his parents, my second great-grandparents.

It turns out Frederick Cobb Chase, was actually born in West Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts on the twenty-first day of August 1882 to a carpenter, Daniel Chase and Elizabeth Gott. His father was born in Boston Massachusetts. His mother was born in Lowell Massachusetts.

On the fourth day of October 1894 Frederick’s mother died by drowning at the age of 40. Frederick was just 12. Frederick’s father remarried a year later to Helen M. Burns. Frederick’s stepmother was 19, only six years older than him. Daniel was 48 years old, though the marriage record shows 42. Helen’s parents were John Burns and Sadie M, both immigrants from Scotland.

It’s not clear if the Frederick C. Chase found in the 1900 census is the correct one. If it is him, he was living as a lodger with Irish immigrants John and Mary Dwyer on 43 Tremont Street, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts and working as a bell boy. Mr. Dwyer worked as a manager at a theater. Also at the residence was a servant and several other lodgers.

Frederick’s father, Daniel died at the age of 56 on the second of December 1903. The primary cause was “hematurea” which has lasted ten days. A contributory cause of death was, “stomatitus”. His occupation at the time was furniture dealer. Daniel’s wife of eight years, Helen M. Chase was the informant for his death certificate.

Eleven days later, on the thirtieth of December 1903 Frederick married Carrie H Dawson in Nashua, Hillsborough, New Hampshire. Frederick lists his mother’s name as Elizabeth West, which was her name from her first marriage. His occupation entered as “home at present”. Carrie is the daughter of George Dawson from New York and Emma C. Dawson nee Webster from Massachusetts.

By the time of the 1910 census, Frederick was working as a piano tuner and rented a house at 1768 Atlantic Avenue. The street name shown on the census isn’t clear, but was located near State Street in Long Beach, Los Angeles, California. He was living with Helen N. Chase who was listed as his wife of nine years and two years his senior. It shows that there was one child born, but not living. Helen N. was born in Massachusetts from Scottish immigrants. No documentation of a marriage to Helen has been found.

Frederick’s wife Carrie was still living in Massachusetts with her parents during the 1910 census. Her name listed as Carrie H. D. Chase.

The twelfth of September 1918 Frederick filled out a draft registration card. In it his name was spelled Freddrick Cobb Chace. He resided at 4143 Vann Ness Drive Los Angeles, California and was a self-employed piano tuner. He lists Carrie H. Chace as his nearest living relative, but did not give an address. In the notes it said they were separated but not divorced.

Frederick Cobb Chace married Wanda Hannah Proebstel in Santa Ana on the eleventh day of November 1919. He was 37 and she was 21. Wanda was born in Washington State. Her father Francis M. Probstel was born in Oregon and her mother, Rosamond Chamberlian was born in Iowa. It was Wanda’s first marriage. Both were living at 4143 Van Ness Ave in Los Angeles, California. Frederick was shown to be previously married and now divorced, however no divorce record has been found for his marriage with Carrie. His occupation continued as piano tuner.

In 1920 Frederick still lived at 4143 Van Ness Ave with his wife Wanda, but by 1930 they had moved to 2107 Meadow Valley Terrace with their two children ages 9 and 6. Their house was valued at $7,500, which in 2014 dollars would be $101,620.20. Current Zillow estimate on the house is $1,166,872. They along with most of their neighbors owned a radio. About half of their neighbors were born in the United States. The other half were from places such as Russia, Romania, Germany, Holland, and Irish Free State.

The home of Frederick Cobb Chase family in 1930. Image capture of 2107 Meadow Valley Terrace Los Angeles California by Google maps.

I have his date of death as the twenty-first of January 1931, but I failed to record a citation for that and can no longer find a source for that information. I’m sending paperwork in for a certified copy of his death certificate.

My uncle, Frederick’s grandson, told me Frederick was a musician, and had his own band. He said he had heard Frederick had made a couple of records, and that he was the conductor of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. But at this time I have not been able to confirm Frederick being in a band, producing any records, nor being a conductor of the Los Angeles Symphony Orchestra. The website for the Los Angeles Symphony does not show their history, but according to Wikipedia they only ran from 1974 to 1979. He is not listed as a conductor for the Los Angeles Philharmonic, which began in 1919. I sent them an email, but have not received a response.

Frederick’s first wife Carrie continued to live with her parents and younger brother in 1920. She worked as a sales girl in the confectionery industry still living as Carrie H. D. Chase and married. I could not find her in 1930, but found her again in 1940 living with her aunt Mattie and uncle J Alton Paine in West Bridgewater Town, Plymouth, Massachusetts. Her prior place of residence, Avon, Norfolk, Massachusetts. She was listed as single but still had the last name Chase and worked as a cashier in retail grocery.

** Update 13 June 2016 **
That was not the correct Carrie H. Chase I found in the 1940 census. I thought Mattie was Carrie’s maternal aunt Addie. She is not.

I don’t have the original. I received this photo years ago in an email. I believe these children are cousins of my grandmother. If so, the grandparents of these children are either Henry Alvaro Head (1858 – 1938) and Anna Lena Spoungburg (1860 – 1931) who lived in Utah and then Idaho or George Hamp (1867 – 1945) and Elizabeth Allsop (1869 -1951) who also lived in Utah.

My fascination with genealogy began about the age of twelve when I found a eulogy written by my grandmother for her father. I met him once when I was five and he left a huge positive impression on me. I remember when I arrived at his house the first thing he did was greet me with a surprise cradle he had made for my dolls. I also remember the jewelry he made from rocks. He taught me how to identify an agate. He got a kick out of a trick he played on me, “Do you think this will float or sink in the water?” He asked holding a porous rock.

“Sink.” I replied without hesitation. I wished I had been able to stay longer, to get to know him more. He was a true gem.

On another occasion he saw me looking at a picture of a young woman standing in a lake covered with lily pads. “Do you know who that is?” He asked.
“No.”
“That is your grandmother.”
“My grandmother isn’t that young.” I shot back.

The eulogy written from his daughter’s perspective allowed me learn almost as much about her as it did about him. Suddenly it was possible to picture her as a child with her parents. Later I came across a book. I didn’t realize what it was at first. I simply thumbed though it and then noticed some of the people in the book had my great-grandfather’s last name, Hamp. I began listing all the names drawing lines and arrows to whom they were related. Page one hundred and ninety had me mesmerized. There it was, Leonard Hamp, my great-grandfather’s name. This was all about his parents. I couldn’t stop staring at the pictures.

Image capture of 107 Main St. Grace Idaho by Google maps.

According to Gems of Our Valley the first hotel in Grace was the home of George Hamp Sr, built in 1907. It was also the first home to have running water and a bathroom. In the book they say Grace Equipment now stands in the place where the old hotel used to be – I don’t see a sign, but the image on the left looks like it could be Grace Equipment. Gems of Our Valley was published in 1977, so Grace Equipment might do business under another name or not at all. I wish they had just given an address.

I kept my hand drawn tree from this book for many years until the internet became a thing and I discovered Anscetry.com. The first thing I did was look up other trees matching the one I had. I downloaded their information that filled in gaps. – Don’t hate me, I know better now.

I showed my grandmother the new information I had and she shared with me the hand written genealogy from her grandmother, Elizabeth Hamp née Allsop. I couldn’t believe what I held in my hands.